Try the awk to perl translator. For example:
$ echo awk '!x[$0]++' file | a2p
#!/usr/bin/perl
eval 'exec /usr/bin/perl -S $0 ${1+"$@"}'
if $running_under_some_shell;
# this emulates #! processing on NIH machines.
# (remove #! line above if indigestible)
eval '$'.$1.'$2;' while $ARGV[0] =~ /^([A-Za-z_0-9]+=)(.*)/ && shift;
# process any FOO=bar switches
while (<>) {
chomp; # strip record separator
print $_ if $awk;print $_ if !($X{$_}++ . $file);
}
You can ignore the boiler plate at the beginning and see the meat of the perl in the while loop. The translation is seldom perfect (even in this simple example, the perl code omits newlines), but it usually provides a reasonable approximation.
Another example (the one Peter is having trouble with in the comments):
$ echo '{for(i=1;i<=NF;i++)printf( i < NF ? ( $i OFS ) : ($i RS))}' | a2p
#!/usr/bin/perl
eval 'exec /usr/bin/perl -S $0 ${1+"$@"}'
if $running_under_some_shell;
# this emulates #! processing on NIH machines.
# (remove #! line above if indigestible)
eval '$'.$1.'$2;' while $ARGV[0] =~ /^([A-Za-z_0-9]+=)(.*)/ && shift;
# process any FOO=bar switches
$, = ' '; # set output field separator
while (<>) {
chomp; # strip record separator
@Fld = split(' ', $_, -1);
for ($i = 1; $i <= ($#Fld+1); $i++) {
printf (($i < ($#Fld+1) ? ($Fld[$i] . $,) : ($Fld[$i] . $/)));
}
}